Zhu Yang heard that Shen Mu Ning had taken leave and hadn't returned for a long time, and his thoughts raced through his mind.

Taking leave without a valid reason, especially if it's temporary, is definitely suspicious.

Therefore, he felt that the time had come to investigate Shen Mu Ning.

So when it was time to go to work, he directly asked the team leader for leave.

Of course, he didn't know Shen Mu Ning's whereabouts for the time being, so he could only speculate.

"Captain, I'd like to go to the county town to buy some seasonings for the educated youth settlement. Could you give me a letter of introduction?"

To everyone's surprise, Gu Chengde's face darkened immediately. "All of you are trying to run to the county town. The spice commune sells it too. Go to the commune and buy it yourselves."

Because of his words, Zhu Yang was certain that Shen Mu Ning had gone to the county town.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that.

However, it didn't matter to him that he didn't have a letter of introduction.

He had long noticed that the Scarlet Letter Revolution was no longer as serious as it had been in the past two years.

So now, unless you want to buy a train ticket to go somewhere else or your accommodation needs a letter of introduction, nobody checks it at other times.

So, after taking leave, he went straight to the county town.

Chu Mingxu, who was a step behind him, watched him walk away before asking for leave.

When Gu Chengde heard that he also wanted to ask for leave, he almost couldn't maintain his easygoing expression.

Why did all of their things happen to coincide, requiring them to take leave on the same day?

Although I have some doubts now, I still approved his leave.

Who can blame Chu Mingxu for being a big contributor of work points now, already far exceeding the full annual work points limit?

He asked for leave, could I refuse?

It's a good thing it's not the busy farming season, otherwise he would have cursed them to death and they still wouldn't have given him a fake.

Meanwhile, Shen Mu Ning, who was speeding along with Cao Jin towards the county town, was unaware of what was to come.

She never imagined that the situation would be so urgent that she would need to deal with it.

This led both Chu Mingxu and Zhu Yang to consider conducting a follow-up investigation.

The reason Cao Jin didn't even rest at home before heading to the county town was because he had stayed at the brigade for a while.

At that time, Xu Wenjie was dealing with his uncle Xu Yuan's affairs and was extremely busy.

But Cao Jin didn't try to make his presence known to him; he was already somewhat marginalized this time.

However, in the past two days, Xu Wenjie's situation has become increasingly difficult because Qin Mao was taken away for investigation.

Everyone knows that the next director of the Red Army's office will either be promoted directly from deputy director or parachuted in.

However, since the deputy director received news that Qin Mao had been taken away for investigation, he was certain that even if a new director was parachuted in, he would not be from Qin Mao's faction.

With no one to back him up, Xu Wenjie, the group leader, began to suppress his group without any scruples.

Once the news spread, his men scattered like leaves in the wind; some of his former subordinates had already defected to other team leaders.

So if he can show unwavering loyalty to Xu Wenjie now, he should still be able to catch Xu Wenjie's eye.

After delivering the message, he immediately rushed to the county town without delay.

"Cao Jin, do you have a place to stay in the county town?"

Shen Mu Ning thought that he was the only one among her subordinates who could get things done, and it wasn't a good idea for him to keep running back and forth like this.

So she decided to get him a bicycle so that it would be more convenient for him to travel back and forth to the brigade.

However, this requires him to have a fixed residence in the county town for it to be placed there.

Cao Jin didn't know why Shen Mu Ning was asking this, but he still answered honestly, "Well, I rented a small house."

He's often away from home, so of course he has a fixed place to live.

However, the place he lived in was rented, and it was quite run-down and small. Shen Mu Ning didn't care about the condition of his rented place; she just needed to know that he had one.

However, she still asked for his exact location so she could contact him if anything came up.

Upon arriving in the county town, Cao Jin wanted to ask Shen Mu Ning if she needed any help.

She rejected him outright; she was a small target and could escape at any time.

Given Cao Jin's physique and fighting skills, he should probably go and make his presence known to Xu Wenjie.

After getting off the bus, Shen Mu Ning still found a sparsely populated place to change her clothes.

But fearing she might miss out on antique collectors, she applied very rough makeup, just enough to avoid being noticed by ordinary people.

Anyway, if she sees anyone suspicious, she just hypnotizes them and reads their memories.

Who would give them a chance to look closely at her face?

After she finished changing her clothes, she headed straight for the junkyard.

The closer she got to the scrap yard, the more focused she became.

If people who collect antiques now are still investigating who took them away.

Their investigation in the vicinity of the courtyard was the most reasonable approach.

Sure enough, when Shen Mu Ning's mental energy reached the junkyard, there were two people confronting each other inside.

One was Qian Zhuang, who guarded the scrap yard, and the other was a stranger dressed in ordinary cotton and linen clothes.

Seeing that the stranger's emotions were becoming increasingly agitated, while Qian Zhuang remained lazily lying on the recliner.

Moreover, there were suspicious people loitering outside the scrap yard, so she refused to go any further.

I went straight into a small alley and stood there to listen to what they were saying.

"Qian Zhuang, you're saying you know nothing?"

Already annoyed by losing his antique, he ran into Qian Zhuang, a stubborn and unyielding person, and he was about to explode with rage.

"Alright, Deng Kai, what good will it do to get angry at me? You might as well go and investigate it yourself."

Qian Zhuang glanced disdainfully at the incompetent and furious man in front of him. He hadn't even done his job properly, yet he dared to act arrogantly in front of him.

If he hadn't come to Anbei County to lay low, he would have dealt with him long ago.

"I suspect you're behind this now, so of course you have to cooperate with my investigation."

Deng Kai was certainly aware that he bore primary responsibility for the loss of the antiques.

But they had heard before yesterday that Xu Yuan's cause of death was suspicious and that the police had been investigating the matter.

With police presence throughout the entire county, he finally instructed his men to behave themselves.

It wasn't until yesterday, when he received news that Qin Mao had been taken away for investigation, that he remembered to send someone to check the place where the antiques were hidden.

After all, they were collecting antiques in Chunshi in his name.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered that four or five boxes of antiques inside had vanished.

Upon hearing the news, he was so frightened that he immediately jumped out of bed.

They gathered all the brothers they could, wanting to find out where the antiques had gone.

But this place is sparsely populated. Apart from people who come to buy and sell scrap, almost no one comes here. Who can he ask to investigate?

There lived a grandfather and grandson, both members of the "Five Black Categories," in that alley, but the old man was bedridden and emaciated.

He couldn't even get out of bed, and his grandson fed him only thin rice porridge.

The little one looked to be only eight or nine years old, dressed in tattered clothes, his face and body filthy.

He would run into mischievous kids a year or two younger than him as soon as he went out, who would bully him.

A person like that probably worries about how to survive every day.

He sent his men to question them, but they couldn't get anything out of them.